Demented Pasts
by dawndusk47
Summary: Count Bleck and his minions have faced off against many challenges before...but there was one challenge they could not do: Face their own pasts. Oneshot


**After being on a hiatus for a long time, I return with a new one-shot! I love the Super Paper Mario villains, and I REALLY wanted to do something with them so here ya go! Enjoy! :D**

**NOTE* I wrote and uploaded this at 10 o'clock at night, so if there are any grammar or spelling mistakes, I'll fix them later.**

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A man with blue skin, his cloak was tattered, the jewel on his staff was broken, and his monocle was cracked.

A woman also with blue skin, her pink long hair threatened to come out of its bun and her usually formal suit and pencil skirt were torn and messy, nothing like her original organized appearance, her glasses broken straight in half.

A burly man crawled on the ground, his orange beard turned brown with dirt, bruises covering his entire body, battle scars that were once hidden with gloves now exposed.

A young girl around the age of 12 or 13 with green skin, her new adventuring clothes completely ruined, her curled pigtails fallen in disarray, her red rupees blackened and dull, struggled to catch her breath from her recent spider transformation.

A boy in a jester's garb, his outfit almost losing its purple and gold, his hat completely burned into ashes, revealing his black hair, his black and white mask cracked, threatening to reveal his yellow eyes, his once permanent smile no longer existed.

Everyone was back to back in a circle, struggling to use their powers that were burned out long ago. They had come this far in the cave, why was there suddenly a challenge? Why were they suddenly stopped from getting to that missing page of the Dark Prognosticus?

Their pasts were keeping them from going any further. Literally.

A beautiful female human with light brown hair looked at the man with evil red eyes, smiling sweetly and begging him to return to her. Millions of bats swarmed the blue-skinned woman, muffling her screams. Familiar faces appeared in front of the muscular man, all in the forms of his dead soldiers and friends, all trying to stab him with their spears. Men in white coats scared the little girl, all pointing syringes and knives at her, trying to inject something to transform this monster into a Pixl. The boy was haunted by the laughter of people, a single booming voice telling him to dance, to play his flute, to entertain, threatening that he would be punished severely if he refused, which happened often, the laughter of the crowd becoming deafening.

Everyone was dazed. Everyone's hope was lost. They were almost sure that their games would end.

"Dimentio, get us out of here," the man breathed.

The boy whipped his head to stare at the count. "We're...so close...~" he said, his voice cracked but still retained his singsong tempo.

"You doofus! Our games will end if you don't! Teleport us out of here!" screamed the terrified little girl.

Clenching his teeth, Dimentio endured one last hit with a club, raced to the center of the circle, and snapped his fingers. Instantly, the darkness of the cave disappeared, and was replaced with the darkness of the Void. None of the minions ever thought that the darkness that they created could be more comforting.

They all rested and treated their wounds in the parlor of the castle, thinking about what they had just seen and felt. They breathed sharply, still catching their breath and whatever sanity they had left in them. Wordlessly for once, the Count stood up and left to his bedroom, only giving an order to leave him alone. No one dared to ask why, or to ask who the girl in the cave was.

After muttering "That wasn't scheduled," the woman, covering her exposed eye with one hand, gingerly treated the little girl's wounds, who was on the verge of crying out of pure fear.

"'Ey, yeh alright lass?" said the soldier with his Scottish accent. The girl burst into tears at this, burying her face into the woman's shoulder and hair.

"I thought they would kill me! They kept hurting me! No one ever came to save me! Nastasia, keep me away from them keep me away!" she bawled as the woman massaged her back.

"Shhhhhh Mimi. They'll never, um, come back. I promise, K?" Nastasia soothed, trying to calm herself down as well. The bulky man came down to their level and patted both girls' backs.

"'Ey, I coulda done nothin' for meself either. I didn't want to hurt me old chums," he said, being as quiet as possible.

Mimi sniffled. "Thanks O'Chunks," she whispered before flinging herself into his arms. As they hugged each other, Nastasia glanced around the room, happy they were finally home. Then her eyes caught something.

Dimentio, looking down at his destroyed mask, hiding his face from the others, was attempting-and failing-to attend to his wounds. Nastasia cautiously walked to him and picked up the dropped washcloth. She was about to press it against an open gash on his shoulder when he grabbed her wrist. She winced at the pain, certain that if he gripped any harder, the bones in her wrist would crack. He looked up at her with his dangerous yellow eyes, his body trembling with every breath he took.

"Don't. You dare. Touch me," he swallowed through clenched teeth.

"Do you want these gashes to heal? Or do you want to lose your arm?" Nastasia replied, as calmly as she could muster. Dimentio's fingers pried off of her arm as he glared at her, then he went back to fingering his mask (or what was left of it). Nastasia quietly cleaned the gash, looking at his emotionless face.

What surprised her and the other two that looked on was how young the jester was. He couldn't have been more than 19 years old, wrinkles already appearing on his face from his smile that was permanently plastered on him. You could only see them then because his smile was wiped off. His hair did little to hide the pale colorless face he's kept hidden for years under the mask. It was black with small white streaks, all in disarray from the battle and for ignoring it for many years.

Dimentio didn't acknowledge Nastasia when she stepped away. Sitting next to the other minions, she stared at him.

"Dimentio?" Mimi started. "I'm...I'm sorry...I never knew of your past and I...it's terrible. I'm-" She was cut off from the sound of breaking plastic. Dimentio had spilt the half of the mask that was left, and threw the pieces across the room.

"Ever wondered why I wore that mask? ~" he asked, his insane smile returning, his body trembling. Nastasia stood up protectively over the other two minions. "Originally it was supposed to be an acting mask, resembling my jester position. They claimed it was 'tradition' in the Tribe of the Ancients. Later, I used it to hide from all those laughing faces, all my own scars~" His fingers clenched the air, reaching up to touch his pale bruised face. He abruptly stood, magic shaped in a sphere forming in his hand. "I am a descendant of one of the greatest magicians in the world! I have power that most would kill for, and what am I used for?! ENTERTAINMENT!" Dimentio screamed as he threw his magic into a window.

He swallowed, regaining his composure before he formed another sphere and hurled it at his fellow minions who stared blankly at him. Oh, how he despised them so...

He gingerly placed his gloved hands in the pockets of his black pants. "Ah ha ha...seems I lost my temper there, like a little kid who's lost a brand new toy~" he said, back to his normal singsong voice. "My past is a...touchy subject. I'm sure all of you can empathize~"

"Say, what do you guys think was on that missing page? I mean, maybe it wasn't all that important after all?" asked Mimi, quickly changing the subject. Nobody heard Dimentio's slight snicker.

"Oh nothing is my guess my dear Mimi. Nothing at all~" he said before the others could talk. He stretched his arms and rested his hands on the back of his head. "I must retire I'm afraid. Today has been so frightfully exhausting. Ciao~" He snapped his fingers and teleported, leaving behind only a small ripple in the air.

The others all looked at each other. "Since when did Dimentio think a missing page was...um...unimportant?" wondered Nastasia aloud.

...

Dimentio hummed to a song that only he could hear as he painted his newly crafted mask. If only he could remember the title of the song...he had heard Mimi sing it earlier. He shrugged as he changed from his black brush to his white one. He'll remember later.

He smiled wider to himself. It was all such a happy accident, one that went better than he ever would have hoped. He had, indeed, ripped the page from the Dark Prognosticus and had initially placed it into Dimension D. However, his personal dimension still had a small bug in it...whatever he had put in there, it would teleport itself to somewhere else in a random world. And, well, he hadn't noticed this until the page was gone. And where did it turn up? That stupid Illusion Cave in Gloam Valley! At least Dimentio had memorized it. He looked at his cracked mirror, proud of himself.

The page told of his planned betrayal. Surely the Count would become very suspicious if he read that, and that wouldn't bode well with Dimentio's plans.

But, he did find something unnerving about that cave. They had all gotten illusions of their pasts, and they all nearly died from it. They couldn't complete their mission because of their past nightmares.

They couldn't face their pasts.

Well, hopefully it wouldn't happen again. Because obviously that would hinder everyone's plans if something like that did. Then again, Dimentio would be over the moon if it did hinder the Count's plans—

"Ah, that's the name of the song~" he said to himself. 'Over the Rainbow', of course. He gently placed the wet mask on his bedside desk and swapped it for his flute. He played the song, running the lyrics over in his mind as he walked to his window.

His dream world...yes. It will come true.

If only his recurring nightmares that night could allow it.

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**Why do I see Dimentio playing a flute in his spare time? I have no idea... I also have no idea how to write O'Chunks...**

**Anyway, the minions' pasts aren't told of directly (the only one being O'Chunks) so I kind of went with whatever info I could get from the game. Dimentio was the hardest given that almost nothing was told about his past. Also, Dimentio's and Mimi's ages could be totally off. Once again, I had no information on that whatsoever.**

**Hope you enjoyed, and please review!**


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